The Watch and the Vessel
by vjchambers
Summary: Like most of us, I'm salivating for the new episodes of The Vampire Diaries. I decided to pick up where the show left off for my own entertainment.
1. Chapter 1

"Elena, it's me!"

Stefan? Elena cautiously opened her eyes. No.

"It's Damon."

Elena convulsed, glancing around at the wreckage of her car. She was suspended upside down by her seatbelt, and Damon Salvatore was peering down at her, his face twisted sideways. He looked concerned. He didn't seem affected in the slightest by the fact he'd just been run over by her car. And for a second, she'd almost hoped, when she'd heard his voice, that he was his brother. The brother whose lips she could still taste on hers. Whose skin had just been--

Ugh.

Elena's hands went jerkily to her seatbelt to unclasp it.

Damon was faster. He reached inside her shattered window and unhooked the seatbelt, catching her as she was freed. Gracefully, he lifted her out of the wreckage and set her on her feet.

She shook on the pavement, hugging herself.

"You were going awfully fast," Damon said, giving her one of his smug grins.

"You were standing in the middle of the road!" she bit out. Suddenly, she was angry. And angry was good, because it meant that she could feel its fire working through her veins and making it easier for her to stand up without trembling.

"Was I?" said Damon. His grin widened. "Well, you're lucky it was me. If you'd hit anyone else going that speed…" He trailed off. "Roadkill lasagna."

Oh, he thought it was funny, did he? "Look what you did to the car!" Elena said to him, furious. She surveyed the wreck. Oh God. It was ruined. Completely totaled. She swallowed, taking a few steps around the car and then cringing. She got her cell phone out of her pocket.

"Gonna call auntie, huh?" Damon asked.

Did he ever stop grinning like that? God, it was enough to drive a girl insane.

"You have a better idea?"

Damon shrugged. "Well, we--I mean, I--could drag it off the road, hide it. We could make something up."

"Make something up? Like what? The hand of God came down and flipped my car over?" Elena began flipping through the contacts on her phone. She really should call Jenna. But Jenna was going to be so freaked out. And with everything she was dealing with about Logan, Elena wondered if this was really a good time to spring this on her.

"Must have been pretty upset to be driving down the road going that fast," Damon mused. "You weren't with my brother were you?"

Elena stiffened. _With_ Stefan. Like really with him. With him without clothes. And then everything had been-- "Can you just go away? Really, I can handle this."

"Oh, that's a yes," Damon said. He walked in a circle around the car, eyeing the damage. "What did he do? Did he try to get past second base? Stefan's always been a little handsy."

Elena closed her eyes again, as if she could block out Damon's voice along with the sight of him. When she opened them, he was standing right next to her. The curve of his mischievous grin was inches from her face. "He must have done something to piss you off."

What did it matter at this point? Did she really care what Damon thought? "I saw a picture of Katherine," she whispered.

Damon raised his eyebrows, taking a step backward. For several miraculous minutes, he was quiet. Elena went back to her phone. If she wasn't going to call Jenna, then who? Bonnie? Jeremy?

"So then you know," said Damon.

Elena stared at her phone. "I know that Katherine and I could be identical twins, yeah. I know that Stefan never really cared about me. He only cared about Katherine. I know that when he looks at me, he only sees her."

"You don't know all of it," said Damon.

Elena lifted her eyes to him. "There's more?"

He smiled again, but somehow, this time his smile seemed sad. "Much more. And it occurs to me that you might not be particularly interested in seeing my brother for a little bit of time. Let's hide the car. They'll think you ran off to think. Let me tell you what my brother's really up to."

Elena looked from her cell phone to the car to Damon's face. Sure, he seemed sincere, but he was Damon. He was the same Damon who'd nearly killed Bonnie. She couldn't trust him. On the other hand, she'd thought she could trust Stefan, and she'd been wrong about that.

"Where would we go?"

"Not far," said Damon. "There's a little cabin my family owned in the woods. Believe me, Elena, you need to know this."

Elena put her phone in her pocket. "Okay," she said. She hoped she wasn't making a huge mistake.

* * *

Jenna opened the door to find Alaric Saltzman standing on the stoop again. She smiled in spite of herself. "I didn't think you'd be back after you dropped off Jeremy," she said.

"You haven't heard, have you?" he asked.

Jenna looked at him, blank. "Heard?"

"Can I come in?"

She stood aside from the doorway. "Sure. Come on in."

Alaric slid by her and she led him into the kitchen. "Jeremy went to his room about an hour ago, but I don't know if he's asleep. I don't mean to quibble, but are you sure it's…professional for you to be--"

"It's Logan," said Alaric.

"Logan?"

"He's dead," said Alaric.

Jenna covered her open mouth with her hand. "Oh… Oh God," she breathed. Alaric slid a chair under her, and she sat down hard. "How did… did it…?"

"He was stabbed. Seems as if the guy had snapped. They found bodies hidden in his hideout. People he'd killed."

"Killed?" She couldn't believe this. "Logan didn't. He…couldn't…" Could he?

Alaric shrugged. "With guys like that, no one can tell. Not even the people close to them. Ted Bundy's wife had no idea."

Jenna shook her head, unable to speak. It was too big, too much.

Alaric reached for her hand. He looked regretful. "I shouldn't have told you like that," he said. "That was…that was stupid of me. I just, I thought you'd heard, and I thought of you being alone, trying to deal with it, and I--"

"No," she said. "No, I'm glad you're here."

He nodded. "Can I get you a drink?"

"Please," she said. While Alaric busied himself getting her a glass of wine, Jenna tried to process this new knowledge. Logan was dead. Logan had killed people. God. She sure did know how to pick 'em, didn't she? And to think she'd almost felt guilty that she'd kept him out of her life for so long. Some part of her must have known what he was. She should have listened to her subconscious.

Alaric handed her the wine. She took a grateful sip. "How did you find out?" she asked.

"The internet," said Alaric. "It's a breaking news story. It's all over the local websites."

She nodded.

"So Jeremy's upstairs. How about Elena? She asleep too?"

"Um…" Jenna tried to think. "No, I think she's with Stefan. I think--" She broke off. "Oh God. It's late. She's with Stefan. I'm a terrible aunt. I never even had the talk with her or anything or--"

"You haven't seen her, then?"

"No," she said. "You don't think something's happened?"

Alaric shrugged. "How well do you know that Stefan boy?"

"Oh, Stefan's a good guy," said Jenna. "I know he'd never hurt Elena." Just like I knew Logan would never hurt me, right? She stood up. "Maybe I should call her. Just to check in." She started for her phone, which was in her purse in the hallway.

Alaric followed her. "Elena and Jeremy don't have a curfew?"

Jenna turned to him. "Well, it never seemed to be a problem before." She picked up her purse and began to search through it.

There was a knock at the door.

"Who could that be?" Jenna said, opening it.

It was Stefan. "I need to see Elena," he said.

Jenna felt her heart drop into her stomach. "She's not with you?!"

* * *

Elena shook her head. "No," she said.

"Yes," said Damon. "I know you haven't trusted me, but now you've seen the picture of Katherine, you know. All you are to Stefan is a vessel to bring her back."

"That doesn't make sense." Elena gripped the edge of the couch she sat on. They were in Damon's cabin. Elena was wrapped in a quilt and Damon had lit a fire in the fireplace.

Damon paced in front of her. "That's why I followed him back here," he said. "I knew what he was planning. The pieces are in place and this is only time we'll be able to do it. Katherine's spirit is trapped in that old church. Bonnie has a connection to her ancestor, and you have a connection to Katherine. That night, when you saw me bite Bonnie, I was trying to stop her. She was in the middle of some ritual that would complete the transformation. You saw the fire didn't you?."

"Bonnie wouldn't--"

"Bonnie doesn't know what she's doing. And Stefan is doing his best to make sure you won't find out either. But trust me. He's trying to bring Katherine plain and simple." Damon sat down next to her. "Listen to me, Elena. It's important that we stop this. You may not believe this, but I don't really want Katherine back. I don't like what she does to Stefan. She makes him crazy."

Elena looked away from Damon. "If he wants Katherine back so badly, then why hasn't he just done it already?"

"He can't. He needs Bonnie to do it. And since I stopped that ritual by biting her, he hasn't found another time. Until then, he'll bide his time with you, because he can pretend that you're her."

Tears began to squeeze out of Elena's eyes. "I thought he loved me."

Damon put an arm around her. "It's okay. I think maybe, in some twisted way, he thinks he does. He just can't separate you from Katherine in his mind."

This couldn't be happening. Just a few hours ago, Elena had given herself completely to Stefan. Then it had seemed so real and perfect and true. Now, it just seemed hollow and cheap. She felt used and violated. She pulled the quilt tighter around her shoulders and sobbed softly.

Damon pulled her close. She wanted to resist him, but it was comforting to be close to someone, even if it was Damon. And maybe… maybe she had Damon all wrong. Maybe he wasn't the monster she'd originally thought. Maybe he was just complicated.

"Listen," Damon whispered into her hair, "I care about my brother. I don't want him to go down this path. We can stop him together. You and me. But we're going to need Bonnie's help. And we're going to need something that I think you can get. A pocket watch. I think your family may have it."


	2. Chapter 2

Where had Alaric come from? Stefan wondered. Why was he here? It had been nearly fifteen years since he'd seen the other vampire, and the last time hadn't exactly been pretty. Of course, he couldn't very well let on that he knew him, especially since Alaric was posing as a history teacher at the school, or so Stefan gathered. Stefan glowered at Alaric across the kitchen in Elena's house. Alaric's face curved into a satisfied smile, which he dropped the minute Jenna turned to him.

"I'm sure we'll find her," said Alaric. "You've called everyone you can."

Jenna covered her face with her hands. "It's just too much," she said. "First Logan, now Elena." She looked around the kitchen, as if searching for answer to her distress amongst the cabinets. "I feel like I need to be _doing_ something."

"You need to stay here," said Alaric, "just like the police told you to do. If she comes home, someone needs to be here." He looked over Jenna's head at Stefan. "Of course," he continued, "in the future, you might want to be careful of the company Elena keeps. I'm still not sure exactly why she ran away from you, Stefan."

Stefan set his jaw. "She saw something that upset her," he said. He didn't like Alaric. Not one bit. If there were only some way to talk to him without Jenna around. "I guess. She didn't say anything. She just drove off. I've been looking for her ever since."

"That's not like Elena," said Jenna. "She doesn't just drive off. What did she get upset about, Stefan?" She looked at him with pleading eyes.

Stefan looked at the ground. This was all his fault. And as galling as it was to see Alaric here and not know why, he needed to find Elena. He needed to talk to her. He needed to explain that the picture didn't mean anything. He should have told her before. He should have… "I should go," he said. "I can help them find her."

"The police are handling it," said Alaric.

"But with all of the attacks lately," said Stefan. "She could be in danger."

"Is that what killed Logan?" Jenna spoke up. "The wild animal?"

Logan was dead? If Logan was dead, there was only one other vampire to worry about. The only one in town who wasn't in this room. Damon.

* * *

Elena yawned, the warmth of the fire making her feel sleepy. She was exhausted from the emotional roller coaster she'd been on tonight. First the picture of Katherine, then the car wreck, then Damon's admission of what Stefan was up to. It was a lot. She didn't know if she could stay awake much longer. But Damon was sitting next to her on the couch, gazing into the fire. Could she go to sleep with him in the room?

She wasn't sure she was completely buying everything Damon was saying. But she had to admit it made sense. In a twisted, sick way, it did. She didn't want to believe it. A few days ago, she wouldn't have believed it. But now she did. And it explained why Stefan had been so alternately hot and cold with her. Clearly, he felt guilty about what he was using her for. Stefan had a conscience. She knew that.

"Are you tired?" Damon asked.

She hesitated and then yawned again. "A little," she admitted.

"You should sleep," said Damon.

"You might kill me," said Elena.

Damon rolled his eyes. "You're wearing the vervane necklace or did you forget about that?"

Elena fingered it. Stefan had given it to her.

"Besides," said Damon, and he actually sounded a little wounded, not sarcastic like he always did, "I thought by now you might trust me."

Elena pulled the quilt she was wrapped in tight around her shoulders. "Because you're so very trustworthy, right?"

Damon stood up. He started to pace. "So, I'm not the bleeding heart that Stefan is," he said. "I'm not a monster, either."

"You are a monster," Elena countered. "You're cruel and manipulative, and you're probably only helping me because it helps you in some way."

Damon sighed and sat down heavily. "You're right," he muttered. He studied his fingernails, fist clenched in front of his face. "I don't want Katherine back. She's not a very nice person, if you know what I mean. And truthfully, I don't care whether she's good for Stefan or not. I just want to watch him suffer when I stop him from getting what he wants."

Well, that sounded more like the Damon she knew. But why was he admitting this to her? "Why do you hate your brother so much?"

"I don't hate him," Damon said.

Elena raised her eyebrows.

"He's just annoying. That's all. He's my kid brother. He's always been the favorite. My parents adored him. Katherine trusted him. And now you--you like him better too."

"What does this have to do with me?" Elena felt uncomfortable. Damon's tone was different than usual. His demeanor was different. He seemed…genuine. But was it just an act?

Damon chuckled, low rumble in his chest. He smiled at her, his dark eyes bright. "Haven't you figured it out, Elena? It's all about you."


End file.
